It bugs me so much that people feel entitled to certain types of pets, or any pets at all. If you see an animal as entertainment or an accessory and not its own individual being you probably shouldn't have a pet in the first place. The idea of breeding animals so that people can have certain types of animals just seems so crazy to me. I mean, the cats I've chosen to rescue are all longhaired, because I think fluffy cats are cute, but if there were no longhaired cats available in shelters it wouldn't occur to me that I needed to get one from a breeder because I don't have a forking right to a certain kind of cat, cats exist for their goddamn selves. Their fur doesn't exist so it's satisfying for me to pet, it just exists because it's their fur. I realize sometimes people have preferences for certain breeds so whatever, it's great to adopt them when they're available, but I wish we could look at adopting animals as how we deal with an animal overpopulation problem and not a right we have as humans.

I realize this contained no advice whatsoever. I just needed to rant for a second.

_________________"No one with hair so soft and glossy could ever be bad at anything." - Tofulish

Other than saying "try different rescues" and "stretch the truth a little", I'm not sure what I would say. I know animal shelters general have less stringent requirements because they really want to home the dogs but then again, they don't want to see the dog back. The rescues requirements most likely come from experience but people can change and induce flexibility where there may seem to be none. Fostering is a good first step as well.

As far as dog breeding, it is almost like someone asking you what dairy cheese you recommend they buy or which brand of leather you recommend. I love dogs, I love cats but I also recognize that the dog/cat breeding industries contribute to millions of deaths of animals per year. I don't think it is our right to ask for an animal to be bred just so we can own it. I understand why people like certain breeds and I'm pretty flexible although my preferred breed tends to be plentiful (hounds). If I couldn't have the dog/cat I wanted though, I would accept that and prefer not to have a dog/cat as to not support breeding. Not everyone can accept that mentality and trying to get someone to agree that breeding is bad at all costs is near impossible. I'd just state the facts that there are plenty of animals out there and if you find a rescue to be inflexible, I'd try a different one or fostering.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

That's one thing I never understood is the buying dogs from a shop. If I was getting a pup I would want to know the conditions it was bred in was more than acceptable. I think selling dogs in shops here is illegal.

I don't know if it's the same in Ireland, but certainly here in the UK it is still legal to sell a dog in a licensed pet shop as far as I'm aware, although it is uncommon because people are quite aware of the ethical implications of doing so and most animal welfare charities strongly advise against buying a dog in a pet shop.

_________________"Your mother was a superstitious hamster, and your father smelled of elderberry (right before he died of an untreated infection). Now go away, before we taunt you with your credulous magical thinking a second time!" - Desdemona

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 5874Location: United States of New England

i think the thought that purebred dogs can have a lot of health problems may be a good angle for you to take.cause it's true, a lot of them can end up with health issues cause the gene pool is so limited. I think especially with the smush faced dogs like someone mentioned. and then the teeny teeny tiny teacup dogs which im not even sure how they survive.

I know there is such a thing as really responsible and reputable breeders who do health testing and stuff but im guessing those are the dogs that cost in the thousands when most people who are interested in buying rather than adopting are only willing to pay in the hundreds.ive seen people with purebred dogs that have bizarre problems happen.even super duper well bred dogs can have issues.one of the women who goes to the Nose Work class I go to with my dog has mountain dogs. a couple are Greater Swiss Mountain dogs and I forget what the other one is but they are all purebred, gorgeous mountain dogs and I know she paid a lot for them. she is going to get another puppy soon and is driving way far up into Canada to get it so im assuming these are the "thousands of dollars" type dogs that are super well bred by a responsible breeder.they still have issues. they only live like 8-9 years and at the end they have a lot of health and tons of mobility problems.her dog that passed last year had severe mobility problems at the end. he would come to class and sometimes just all of a sudden stumble and fall. he had some other health problems other than just mobility issues but im not sure what they were.she has another older one that wears a special harness that has a handle above the bum and one above the chest area so the human can help them get up. these dogs could not be more well taken care of or have a better life than with this woman and they still just have issues that I have to assume are breed based issues.

knock on wood both my shelter mutts have been really hardy. I rarely need to take them to the vet for health issues. one had a gunky ear recently and that was the biggest health issue we've had in a long time. we've been super lucky. they are both heading towards senior so hopefully we will stay lucky. one has massive behavior issues but it has nothing to do with his breed (he's mainly lab so really he is going against his breed standard with his issues)

some shelter mutts can have behavior issues but most of them just need some training and to know what's expected of them and after that they typically health wise are pretty solid. (of course every situation is different)I would be afraid to buy a purebred dog because ive seen such bad things happen to people who become really attached and then something bizarre happens to the dog.

Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are pretty huge, and the bigger dogs are the shorter their lives. Joint/mobility problems are common too. Bernese mountain dogs are notoriously short lived.

But using "hybrid vigor" as an argument backfires also. Breed two dogs prone to hip dysplasia, no matter the breed, their offspring are just as likely to have hip problems. I've seen this a lot in labradoodles in particular. People think they're getting this super healthy hypo allergenic dog but at 18 months it's already got hip problems and took on more lab type hair than poodle hair, so there goes the hypoallergenic part.

Sometimes telling someone to go adopt a mutt because it will be healthier makes them think that shelling out $1500 for a "designer dog" is the ultimate guarantee of health which is so far from the truth it makes me a little sick.

With my chihuahuas, I know certain things to keep an eye on. I know Migo needs a dental and I will always have to watch his teeth. I know they could, all of a sudden, have luxating patellas. But I also know that they're not likely to tear an ACL unless there's massive incident, and I don't have to worry much about hip/back/elbow/ear problems.

If someone has something particular in mind trying to sway them towards any ole mix is not going to fly. But, they might be willing to aim for a mix that has their favourite breed. The mix is LIKELY to steer clear of the typical genetically passed health problems of their favourite breed, but is no guarantee. If someone is looking for smaller dogs, the likelyhood that the dog for adoption came from BYB, puppy mill, pet store breeder stock, and they are much much more likely to have screwy health problems because of excessive inbreeding, "pure bred" or not. It seems like larger dogs in rescue and shelter are more likely to be accidental breedings and then true hybrid vigour has more weight in the argument.

_________________Anyone for some German Shepherd Pie? - daisychainWell! Fruit is stupid! These onions taste nothing like fruit! - allularpunkDwarf-tossing for God: A Story of Hope - Invictus

Yes, I think that saying that "pure breeds have health problems" isn't accurate and leads inevitably to a derailment of the conversation into a debate about whether or not pure bred dogs are healthy and "well my friends have a pure bred and they say...." Its better to just focus on why breeding is problematic and to steer people towards a rescue.

Like Moon says on the earlier page - find out which rescues are going to be a match (ie if your friends have a child, find one that will adopt to families with kids) and then have them see the dogs. Try to keep their minds open, so they aren't falling in love with a fantasy dog (like my friend who can only accept a very young, declawed, white cat) but remain open to meeting the right dog and falling in love no matter what the breed.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

When I talk to people who are looking to adopt I say "don't get too hung up on age, breed or colour, because you never know when a sweet face or sad story will catch your heart".

Having a general idea of what will work with your lifestyle is good, being super specific sets you up to fail in so many ways.

Tofulish, why is your friend so specific on a white cat? I get the feeling that a lot of people who have colour specifications are hoping to get a clone of a previous pet or other animal they were close to. A sad situation that puts many many animals back in the adoption system: "New dog was nothing like my sweet Brutus!"

_________________Anyone for some German Shepherd Pie? - daisychainWell! Fruit is stupid! These onions taste nothing like fruit! - allularpunkDwarf-tossing for God: A Story of Hope - Invictus

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 5874Location: United States of New England

Yeah it’s definitely a hard subject to tackle. I just feel like some people are anti-shelter/rescue dog but I guess I am anti-purebred . hahahaaI think your point about being open to waiting and working with a rescue/shelter and then being open to getting a mix and not falling in love with a supposed “dream dog” on petfinder is probably the best advice.For both of our dogs we went to look at totally different dogs and for different reasons ended up with the dogs we have now. The 2nd one we even ended up with a totally different breed…..whatever the heck breed he is I have no clue.We are definitely lab people. We love labs they are goofy and kinda stupid and are active and love to go on walks/hikes and are fun. They fit perfectly in with our personalities and lifestyle. I knew I wanted a lab. Didn’t care if it was a lab mix. Strangely enough you would think labs are one of the most ubiquitous breeds out there but we had to wait awhile and then travel about an hour to get our first dog because the shelters right near us had predominantly pitbulls. I love pitbulls I think they are awesome dogs but it wasn’t really what we wanted and our house insurance has a list of breeds we cant own. My husband says that doesn’t matter but I don’t really feel like house insurance is something we should mess with. Plus our friends have 2 pitbulls so when I need a fix of squishy mushy love I can go see them.Our 2nd dog we again went in search of another lab/lab mix and we ended up with a hound. The shelter called him a “lab mix” but I think some shelters call all dogs lab mixes. :-P (our friends with the pitbulls were told their first pittie was a lab mix, technically he probably is a lab mix, a lab/pittie mix. That dog is a freakin horse) so even though we KNEW we were lab people and that’s what we wanted we ended up with a totally different breed mix. He is great but yeah he is TOTALLY different than our lab. But we got to see how cool hound mixes are. I like him because he is a mega super mutt and I entertain myself guessing what the hell he might be a mix of. ill never know. we did a DNA test and the results were laughable.I think all people should go to shelters and get a mega mutt so they can play “guess what the hell my dog might be” too ;-)

And as far as the health stuff goes, you guys are of course right. *sigh* I would love to be able to claim loudly to everyone that mutts are far superior but I also know in the back of my mind that there is a possibility that my lab mix will one day have bad hips because labs are prone to that. I don’t even know if he’s a mix anymore. We always assumed he was because ive never heard of a 60 lbs male lab but recently I saw a couple other purebred labs that were about his size, I think they were female though. It doesn’t matter to me if he’s mixed or not I just wonder.

This is a ramble-y story about my experience with rescues. In short, we had a hard time adopting a rescue dog and were lied to (or, more charitably, accidentally weren't informed of important issues) by the rescue we adopted from, but I was also 100% committed to going through rescue and not a breeder, so we didn't have much choice but to keep trying. I'm not sure what the right answer is - maybe it's just to keep trying until you find the dog for you and a rescue willing to give you a chance, but it's a process! I'm sure the rescues are doing their best with limited resources, but it seems important for them to keep in mind that for every person like us who will keep trying with rescues no matter what, most people will give up and go to a breeder after a bad experience or two.

I adopted my dog through a rescue, but was denied about half a dozen times before we got our dog. I initially wanted a large poodle or poodle mix (I grew up with standard poodles, really like them, and my husband and I are both allergic to dogs), I applied to a number of rescues - pretty much every poodle rescue in driving distance of my house - wrote the required essays and was clear that we were open to any dog that the rescue thought would be a good fit for us. I never heard back from a single one.

I get why not - we live in an apartment and we both work, and poodles/doodles are in demand, so I can see why the rescues would prioritize applications from families with a stay at home parent or fenced yard. But, it was disheartening to never even hear back saying that they don't adopt to people in apartments, or whatever (I didn't even try with the rescues that were clear about requiring a fenced yard or had other criteria we didn't meet). We had plenty of time/money/resources for caring for a dog and I have a lot of dog experience.

So, we switched to shepherds since my family also had shepherds when I was little and thought I might be less allergic to them than to other dogs (which is true, I'm barely allergic to my dog even though labs and goldens make me want to die of itchiness), plus I've had some shepherd experience and they're great dogs. We went to a local shepherd rescue to visit one dog, and when he wasn't a good fit for us, they brought out an "easier" shepherd-mix dog, whom we later adopted. They did a home visit and asked for references (but didn't actually check them). We were pretty substantially misled by the shepherd rescue about our dog's personality (he's the best and I love him, but he is a serious resource guarder and they told us that he was a perfect "first dog" since my husband had never had a dog before). We've run into some problems with him that we could have avoided or resolved more easily had we known about his issues from the beginning (and they did know about his problems as their volunteer behaviorist is now our trainer and she totally knew about his issues as soon as I mentioned which dog we had adopted). We expected a rescue dog with an unknown background to have some behavioral issues, so that's totally fine. It's just frustrating that we could have done a lot to mold his behavior right when we got him had we realized that he guards people/areas/toys/treats (but not his dinner, weirdly) once he gets comfortable in his surroundings (he was a total angel for the first few months - the guarding didn't come out until he started to feel at home).

Last edited by aiee on Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tofulish, why is your friend so specific on a white cat? I get the feeling that a lot of people who have colour specifications are hoping to get a clone of a previous pet or other animal they were close to. A sad situation that puts many many animals back in the adoption system: "New dog was nothing like my sweet Brutus!"

I think that is so true! He's never had a cat before and I think he just likes the look. We had a white feral kitten in our yard and everyone around us loved her. I think white cats are very beautiful, rare and appealing. Its sad that black cats, which are similarly beautiful are seen as less rare and are the hardest to adopt out. I think people fall in love with an idea of a pet, as you say, and then get disappointed when its not a fungible thing but a being with its own personality.

And I agree that that is so useful for people to remember. Its like all love, go and meet the animals with an open mind and you'll find the one who is meant to be your furfriend.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

This is a ramble-y story about my experience with rescues. In short, we had a hard time adopting a rescue dog and were lied to (or, more charitably, accidentally weren't informed of important issues) by the rescue we adopted from, but I was also 100% committed to going through rescue and not a breeder, so we didn't have much choice but to keep trying. I'm not sure what the right answer is - maybe it's just to keep trying until you find the dog for you and a rescue willing to give you a chance, but it's a process! I'm sure the rescues are doing their best with limited resources, but it seems important for them to keep in mind that for every person like us who will keep trying with rescues no matter what, most people will give up and go to a breeder after a bad experience or two.

I adopted my dog through a rescue, but was denied about half a dozen times before we got our dog. I initially wanted a large poodle or poodle mix (I grew up with standard poodles, really like them, and my husband and I are both allergic to dogs), I applied to a number of rescues - pretty much every poodle rescue in driving distance of my house - wrote the required essays and was clear that we were open to any dog that the rescue thought would be a good fit for us. I never heard back from a single one.

I get why not - we live in an apartment and we both work, and poodles/doodles are in demand, so I can see why the rescues would prioritize applications from families with a stay at home parent or fenced yard. But, it was disheartening to never even hear back saying that they don't adopt to people in apartments, or whatever (I didn't even try with the rescues that were clear about requiring a fenced yard or had other criteria we didn't meet). We had plenty of time/money/resources for caring for a dog and I have a lot of dog experience.

So, we switched to shepherds since my family also had shepherds when I was little and thought I might be less allergic to them than to other dogs (which is true, I'm barely allergic to my dog even though labs and goldens make me want to die of itchiness), plus I've had some shepherd experience and they're great dogs. We went to a local shepherd rescue to visit one dog, and when he wasn't a good fit for us, they brought out an "easier" shepherd-mix dog, whom we later adopted. They did a home visit and asked for references (but didn't actually check them). We were pretty substantially misled by the shepherd rescue about our dog's personality (he's the best and I love him, but he is a serious resource guarder and they told us that he was a perfect "first dog" since my husband had never had a dog before). We've run into some problems with him that we could have avoided or resolved more easily had we known about his issues from the beginning (and they did know about his problems as their volunteer behaviorist is now our trainer and she totally knew about his issues as soon as I mentioned which dog we had adopted). We expected a rescue dog with an unknown background to have some behavioral issues, so that's totally fine. It's just frustrating that we could have done a lot to mold his behavior right when we got him had we realized that he guards people/areas/toys/treats (but not his dinner, weirdly) once he gets comfortable in his surroundings (he was a total angel for the first few months - the guarding didn't come out until he started to feel at home).

Alee, your whole story here really bothers me. Rescues should, at the very least, be able to send out a form letter saying you were denied, not just leave you hanging.

When I ran the daycare the trainer I worked with was asked for help by a family that had just recently adopted their dog. He was a huge mastiff type mix, and the rescue had described him as the perfect family dog. They neglected to mention this dog's extreme dominance. Let me say, that's not a word I like using and it's typically used incorrectly, but not in this case. This boy needed to run the show and this kind of typical suburban family with an 8 year old daughter could not handle the problems that came with this dog's intensity. The experience was so bad for them that of course they ran out and bought a lab puppy right after returning the dog to rescue.

Which, you know, anger!

'Fulish, do you think your friend could handle a deaf cat? All white cats are so often deaf, going through a deaf cat or special needs rescue might fit?

_________________Anyone for some German Shepherd Pie? - daisychainWell! Fruit is stupid! These onions taste nothing like fruit! - allularpunkDwarf-tossing for God: A Story of Hope - Invictus

It bugs me so much that people feel entitled to certain types of pets, or any pets at all. If you see an animal as entertainment or an accessory and not its own individual being you probably shouldn't have a pet in the first place. The idea of breeding animals so that people can have certain types of animals just seems so crazy to me. I mean, the cats I've chosen to rescue are all longhaired, because I think fluffy cats are cute, but if there were no longhaired cats available in shelters it wouldn't occur to me that I needed to get one from a breeder because I don't have a forking right to a certain kind of cat, cats exist for their goddamn selves. Their fur doesn't exist so it's satisfying for me to pet, it just exists because it's their fur. I realize sometimes people have preferences for certain breeds so whatever, it's great to adopt them when they're available, but I wish we could look at adopting animals as how we deal with an animal overpopulation problem and not a right we have as humans.

I realize this contained no advice whatsoever. I just needed to rant for a second.

I agree. I love black cats, but mostly because it drives me up the wall that there are people who don't like them, so they are always passed over and often homeless. Because I know people are choosy about rescues, I purposely choose the weirdest looking greasiest cat or dog who has been there the longest, and I've had the BEST pets. I'm not trying to be a rescue martyr; I just hate that people are so judgmental. My current kitty was a chubby greasy bald little girl because she'd been in a cage for more than a year, and now she is a fluffy happy ball of perfection with the most irresistible personality.

I hear you Moon! I feel like rescues are a bit overprotective of the dogs that are easy to place but not very responsible when it comes to the hard to place dogs, like pitties and GSDs. They're just happy anyone is willing to take them sometimes, and not all that forthcoming about potential issues.

My MIL is in her mid-70s and can barely walk. A local rescue placed a young (1 year old) 90lb male GSD, who had to have his tail amputated (before he got to her) because he was so anxious he was chewing it off, with her. She couldn't walk him, he bit everyone who came into the house, he bit his own paws and wore circles in the carpet from his pacing and would regularly just chew everything in the house to shreds (she got 2 new couches during his 6 month lifespan with her). She loved him, because he was always super-gentle with her, and was gutted when they had to put him down. She spent thousands on anti-anxiety meds, a behaviorist, trainer, vets and vet neurologists hoping that someone could help Chester. But at the end, everyone agreed that there was nothing one could do because he had organic brain damage that was irreversible. Then while she was grieving they found her an obese 4 year old GSD who had belonged to an 87 year old man, who was bedridden. The dog had never really gotten out (they owner got her from a breeder as a puppy at 83 when he could barely walk) and had spent her whole life being fed ice-cream, cereal and chocolates. My MIL put her on a diet and helped get her fit, but she died of pancreatitis. Now she has an overactive pittie pup, whom she cannot control or walk (she has a dogwalker who takes the dog to training and walks her). She desperately loves GSDs because they were her dream dog when she was a little girl, but no rescue should have ever placed any of these dogs with an elderly woman who cannot walk. Some days it seems like after her abusive husband died, she has replaced him with a string of dogs who dominate the crepe out of her.

And a dear friend adopted a GSD mix from a rescue who then acted out with his 3 year old, so they no longer felt safe with her. So they took it upon themselves to rehome her to another family with a 5 year old, without ever contacting the rescue. So less than 2 days with the new family, the dog bit the 5 year old and everyone agreed the dog needed to be PTS. But no one ever contacted the rescue to see what could be done. And then both families bought a nice lab puppy from a breeder, and are now convinced that the only problem was that the rescue dog had problems and rescues aren't safe around kids.

I wish there was more consistent screening and education. I think it could do a lot to make rescuing more realistic for people, and that is key to moving away from a world where most people get their pets from breeders or pet stores.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I hear you Moon! I feel like rescues are a bit overprotective of the dogs that are easy to place but not very responsible when it comes to the hard to place dogs, like pitties and GSDs. They're just happy anyone is willing to take them sometimes, and not all that forthcoming about potential issues.

yes, a million times this. My sister in law has been fostering small pittie mixes recently because she's dying to adopt a dog but she and her husband don't consistently have enough free time to commit to a dog for life, and the rescues trying to place the dogs lie constantly to potential adopters. Dogs that should be an only dog are advertised as "great with other dogs," etc, and she gets put in the middle and has to tell the adopters that the rescue is lying (and she's talked to the rescue about it to no effect).

It's so irresponsible and don't serve the dogs or the people who adopt them, or the larger cause of trying to get people to adopt rather than buy animals! Really frustrating.

In my case it doesn't matter, because I'll deal with a difficult dog (plus he's such a good dog in every other way that I don't mind having to cope with the guarding so much), but if my guy had gone to a family with kids, they would have had to re-home him by now (at best).

We didn't have any lying regarding ours although my husband and I joke about the description card for our cat that had "Sweet!" written on it, when really she is the devil spawn. No, she is really sweet but I do think that if she could take over the world, she would.

For our beagle, he came out of a quasi shelter/rescue run by the county where they didn't know anything about him other than what had been written by his 2 previous owners. The shelter/rescue was very cautious in placing him with us because they had a 3 strikes rule. One of his previous owners said they had rabbits and he was good with rabbits and I highly, highly doubt that. We don't have rabbits but we've seen the way he acts on our walks when he sees them. It is possible but I'm still doubting. Our other dog came from a rescue that had their dogs mostly in a private shelter, some in foster care. They really didn't know anything about her but they said she had been tested with cats and was ok. Her personality changed so much over the first year though that I don't know if you had said something about her when we got her whether it would've been true a year later. She didn't bark, she wasn't overly protective, she was scared in certain situations but now she barks, she is overly protective of her domicile/family members and she is a pretty bold dog but she loves kids, loves cats and loves other dogs except if they get in between her and myself.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 5874Location: United States of New England

aiee wrote:

This is a ramble-y story about my experience with rescues. In short, we had a hard time adopting a rescue dog and were lied to (or, more charitably, accidentally weren't informed of important issues) by the rescue we adopted from, but I was also 100% committed to going through rescue and not a breeder, so we didn't have much choice but to keep trying.

*snip*

We were pretty substantially misled by the shepherd rescue about our dog's personality (he's the best and I love him, but he is a serious resource guarder and they told us that he was a perfect "first dog" since my husband had never had a dog before). We've run into some problems with him that we could have avoided or resolved more easily had we known about his issues from the beginning (and they did know about his problems as their volunteer behaviorist is now our trainer and she totally knew about his issues as soon as I mentioned which dog we had adopted).

this times a million!!!I will always be a rescuer and get rescue animals but our first adoption left a bad taste in my mouth. this dog has SERIOUS SERIOUS behavior issues and we were led to believe that other than being super energetic (he was a 2-3 year old lab, duh) and needing a basic training class that he was the perfect specimen of dog for 2 people who had never owned a dog before.if we had known he had some issues there would have been certain things we would have avoided or done right away to make it way easier to help rehabilitate him.we ended up in some bad situations because we didn't know he had serious issues and we also didn't know any better cause it was our first dog and we were clueless.

so rather than being able to rehabilitate him which I think we could have done initially we just have to manage him because he will never get better.

our 2nd dog was only in the shelter up here for 1 night after being transported up here from IN so I certainly don't expect that they would have known anything about him but the first dog had been in the pound for 6 months under the rescues care with just a few other dogs. methinks plenty of time for them to get to know him.

our 2nd dog's paperwork from his original shelter said he "loved dogs, cats, and water"he hates all 3!dogs he could care less about. completely ignores them and has no interest in them. if they get directly in his face he snaps at them. cats he seems mildly interested in checking them out as we don't see them often but otherwise has no reaction, and when we come across water he wont even put a paw in it.

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 5874Location: United States of New England

gaaaahhhhh!!!! im feeling this thread today.

one of my coworker/friends just posted a pic of what i think is a Jack Russell puppy on fb and said how she just absolutely has to have him and is looking for breeders.

i just.....i dont know what to do. all i said was "please dont buy a dog please look into a shelter" and someone else said something about breeders being expensive and to look through rescues/shelters so at least im not the only one.

i really like this person but she's not the brightest person in the world and i dont think she has any clue what she's getting herself into or is doing.

she just thinks that dog is cute and really wants one.

financially i dont know how they would get a purebred anyways. she and her fiance are planning a wedding in FL for i believe OCtober of this year.she's currently finishing school for dental assisting so she's technically only working where i work part time.

and then.....a Jack Russell....oy vey....they live in an apartment with just the 2 of them and have i think every other weekend custody of her fiance's 13 year old son.

i just wanna be like "this is a really bad idea dont do it"

being in school and planning an out of state wedding and eventually job hunting for a new job plus sharing custody of a 13 year old i dont see where they would have time for any kind of puppy never mind a JACK RUSSELL

I'd just remind her of everything they have going on, and do they really have the time and finances over the next year? Pay for puppy, shots, surgery, training, puppy gear? Time to study, work, plan a wedding and house train?

Remind her that puppies don't stay puppies and show her the huge amount of JRs on petfinder because people aren't prepared for that terrier mentality? Lots of reacues do events over the spring/summer, recommend she get out to a JRT meetup and actually spend some time with these maniacs!

_________________Anyone for some German Shepherd Pie? - daisychainWell! Fruit is stupid! These onions taste nothing like fruit! - allularpunkDwarf-tossing for God: A Story of Hope - Invictus

I'm a mutt person, so I'm a firm believer in the pound. However, in recent years my family has gotten involved with a breed specific rescue group. Our 2 dogs are from the rescue group.

Normally, they place dogs with people that seem like a good fit. I can only think of a few examples when people didn't get dogs.

When people say they can't rescue I normally point out all the positives of rescue point out all the problems with breeders and puppy mills. I also explain how the love a rescue gives can be super special.

This may not be the most helpful, but don't disregard the possibility that people sometimes have to figure things like this out for themselves. Like, if you try to convince them once to use a rescue instead of a breeder and they don't, that sucks obviously, but by continuing to put out information and modeling ethical treatment of animals they might get it eventually. For instance, a few years ago my family (not me, other members of my family) were planning to buy a dog from a breeder. I talked to them about the reasons why that's unethical and suggested rescue alternatives. They chose to go ahead and buy from a breeder anyway. But later, I was talking to one of them about it and that person mentioned a comment the breeder had made to her about selling dogs' sperm that made her uncomfortable, so I took that opportunity to (in a non-blaming, non-judging, just stating the facts sort of way) remind her about the way breeders operate and what it really means to force captive dogs to impregnate each other, and then she got it. I don't think she will buy from a breeder again. So my preferred strategy is to tell people the facts about breeders so they understand why not to buy from a breeder, more so than trying to convince them that going with a rescue will get them the dog they want.

_________________Man, fork the gender card, imma come at you with the whole damned gender deck. - Olives Did you ever think that, like, YOU are a sexy costume FOR a diva cup? - solipsistnationblog!FB!